Microsoft has announced that users in five countries will be blocked from using Windows Live Messenger. The popular instant messaging service is now off limits to people living in Syria, North Korea, Iran, Sudan and Cuba. All of those countries have U.S sanctions against them and are continued to be hostile or threatening to our national interests.

Microsoft declined to say why it had suddenly decided to shut down service now or exactly how many users would be affected. All they would say is they do not do business in those countries. Users in those countries who attempt to log in will be greeted with the error message “810003c1: We were unable to sign you in to the .NET Messenger Service.” Users who research the error will find this explanation in the Messenger Support Space:

It was just a little over a month ago now that the Cuban Government decided to begin easing up on restrictions with electronics, namely computers, and as we have already seen Cuba citizens lining up for cell phones, the same is happening with computers.

Reports of “more than a dozen prospective buyers” began to line up when they first went on sale. While “just” a dozen people may not sound like a lot, you also must consider that these computers are not coming cheap. Havana’s Carlos III shopping center began to sell the Qtech PC along with a CRT monitor for $780. Sounds expensive enough already, but consider further that these PC’s are not exactly high powered either, they are featuring Intel Celeron processors with 80GB hard drives, 512MB of RAM and running Windows XP.

The Internet access while tightly controlled does not seem to be stopping Cuban bloggers from telling their story. Computers have just recently became legal for Cuban citizens to own and even with the hard to come by Internet access many are turning towards the web to share their story. Some of the blogs, have been more »

Since cell phones were first made available, and legal, Cuban citizens have been furiously purchasing new cell phones. Its been just about ten days now and Cuba’s telephone company is reporting that they have sold 7,400 new cell phones, about 740 per day. While I can expect a lot of people to be wanting to more »

After the recent end of the cell phone ban in Cuba, locals have been lining up to get their very first mobile phones. Monday morning, Cuban locals were eager to get their mobile phones from state-owned phone offices after many decades of being deprived of hi-tech gadgets. Reforms in Cuba brought about by its new more »

Its always nice to see a happy outcome, a Cuban blogger, who recently had her own site blocked by the Cuban government has won an award for that very site. Yoani Sanchez who writes the Generacion Y blog as a journal of her daily life in Cuba was given the Ortega and Gasset prize for more »

Following up on the recent announcement to lift the ban on computer and DVD player sales, the Cuban Government has decided to lift the ban on cell phones. While Cuba has not been a cell-phone free country, the available phones have been primarily used by government officials, foreigners and those who were able to get their hand on one from a third-party, which meant very few had access. The good new is that beginning soon, according to ETECSA the phones and service will be available “within days,” can actually be used by anyone (assuming its affordable) and without worry or fear of getting in trouble.

It was just a few short weeks ago that the good news came about how the Cuban government was beginning to ease up a little by allowing their people sales of computers and video players. While they may be allowed to purchase (assuming they can afford one) a computer, it may not be that perfect setup considering the Internet access will be limited and remain in control of the government. Recently a popular Cuban blogger’s website was blocked, just like YouTube was inaccessible for almost a week in China.

Yoani Sanchez, a 32 year old graduate of philology blogs for “Generacion Y“, journaling her daily life in Cuba, as well as the political constraints and economic hardships in her country. In an interview with Reuters, Sanchez divulged that she could not access her website as of Monday. Last February, Sanchez’s blog received 1.2 million hits from all over the world and just this week, website has become inaccessible from her connection in Cuba. However, she found a way to access her blog via an indirect route, most likely an Internet proxy.

While most of us take the latest and greatest computer for granted, or at least the fact that we are easily able to purchase a computer. Not to mention we seem to be very worried about the next-generation movie players and have all gotten caught up in the recent format war (where Blu-ray came out victorious). But what if those options had not been available to us?

Being very into tech it’s easy to forget that some people may not be able to purchase such devices, not because of a financial reason but because their government did not allow it. While I will not dive to far into Communism here, it is with very good news that there are some signs of change in Cuba, even if it is just a little at a time.